Roger Thomas looks at the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs’ tribulations implementing the VAT Directive
It is now some 34 years since the introduction of the Sixth Directive and five years since the Principal VAT Directive.
Time one would have thought for the UK to have ironed out the wrinkles in its domestic implementation of VAT law.
Unfortunately not. Most of the cases which continue to trouble the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs arise in the area of exemption: there seems to be an assumption in the Department that Article 132 is an invitation to tax avoidance rather than an implementation of European fiscal policy for the most part affording relief from taxation to activities or organisations which...
